International

‘Europe has brought us a great deal, but at the moment is threatened by politicians who in rapid tempo want to force through a European government, a European president and a European superstate.’ So said SP leader Emile Roemer today in the parliamentary debate on the eurocrisis. ‘Anyone who values European cooperation is not to be led along by the financial markets, which is making any form of democracy impossible,’ he added.

An enquiry by the lobbying watchdog ALTER-EU has shown that the transparency register established by the European Commission in 2008 is not functioning effectively. The European Parliament last year began to use the register, in which practically all Brussels lobbyists should in principle be listed. The information contained in the register is, however, in part incorrect and many firms who are demonstrably active in the Brussels are omitted. SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong says that ‘There is clearly some confusion: some firms claim that they spend only a few euros a year on lobbying, which is of course totally unrealistic. Information about what European legislation a lobbying effort is aimed at is missing, incomplete or out of date. There are also a large number of companies, including Dutch firms Philips Medical Systems and Ahold, who have simply still not registered, despite the fact that they are certainly active in Brussels. It’s clear that more monitoring and additional measures are badly needed.’